Monday, May 28, 2007

Race Day 2007

05/28/2007

An Indy 500 Race day to be remembered! What ended up a rain-shortened race of 415 miles, was one of the most exciting races I have seen since I began attending in 1981. More lead changes is this race than 29 of the last 32, combined! The checkered flag was waved in the pouring rain, the second major storm since the beginning of the race. While clothes were dampened, spirits were not. My wife’s younger sister and her husband had come down for their first race. We wanted it to be a good experience and exciting race. Although we did not get in 500 miles, we got all the excitement and thrills we could ask for.

After getting up yesterday, the first thing we did was check the weather radar. It did not look good. It appeared a big storm was about to hit Indy, which was already wet. Well, it did rain but most of the storm blew north of us. We left for the track at about 9:00 am, wanting to make sure we could park in our usual spot (Speedway High School). Absolutely easy drive the parking lot, which was much emptier than I thought it would be. We parked, hung around for about 30 minutes and then walked the three-quarters of a mile down to the track. When we left. it was not raining.

We arrived at the track and worked our way up to our seats. Track drying was in full swing. They got it dry and the race started on time. The pole sitter was overtaken going into the first turn and lead changing began in earnest. The first caution came to remove pieces of John Andretti’s right side mirror. How it broke is not known. Every single car came it at once for the first pit stop on this yellow. Lead changing kept on in earnest. There were three more cautions before the first rainfall, all three accidents single car accidents with no major injuries and only one minor injury. Some questionable pit stops occurred during this last yellow before the skies opened, most notable, Sam Hornish, defending champ. When the race was red-flagged for rain, Tony Kanaan leading, Marco Andretti second and Danica Patrick in third. This was around 3:00 pm. Kanaan started his rain dance while everyone else hoped it would stop, the track would again be dried and we would go racing again.

An hour later the rain did stop, they began drying the track, and we were ready to race again by 5:45 pm. As my son said it would, and I had also been saying this too, it was a “freaking frenzy” when the green flag waved again. One caution and lots of great racing ensued, lead changes continuing at an unbelievable rate. The clouds started darkening in the west. Carol got a text message (we are not sure from which of our two boys) that said rain in 15 minutes. We believed it. Others must have gotten the same info as ponchos started re-appearing. Meanwhile, in the best piece of luck during the day, Dario Franchitti had to make a pit stop out of sync due to a tire problem. That stop proved to make the difference. When the second to last caution came out, all of the leaders had to pit but Dario did not.

After running a few laps under yellow, the green flag waved once again and the drivers were off, briefly. On the back stretch Marco Andretti, whose right side mirror was unusable, bumped wheels with Dan Weldon, went airborne, flipped over and skidded along upside down for a bit, hit the infield grass and flipped back over. All the Andretti faithful moaned, the anti-Andretti faithful cheered. That was short-lived as Marco did not get right out of his car. Concerned fans watched until Marco did emerge from his race car, albeit a bit wobbly, and cheers by all erupted when it was clear he was probably OK. Former winner Buddy Rice was also taken out by this crash. Dario fell in behind the pace car for the yellow that came out. Less than one lap under yellow the skies erupted again (about 15 minutes as predicted after we got the text message). A lap later the checkered flag waved and the second Scot in the history of the Indy 500 had his first victory (Jim Clark was the other, over 40 years ago). Dario’s wife, actress Ashley Judd looked every bit as happy as hubby. The time was about 6:30 pm.

We had an uneventful rapid trip home. We carried everything in and turned on ABC’s re-broadcast of the race (it is blacked out locally). Thankfully the three hour rain delay was edited out of the broadcast and be 11:30 pm or so, I turned off the TV and went to bed.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Race Weekend

05/24/2007

Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, the greatest spectacle in racing. We are a few scant days from the 91st running of the Indy 500. As usual, we are already watching the weather forecast. So far, there is a 30% chance of rain race-day morning. Sounds like the race will run Sunday. As long as it stops raining, if it ever does Sunday, by 9:00 am or so, the race will likely start on time at 1:00 pm. Carol’s younger sister and her husband are coming down to go to the race with us. A good time will be had be all.

Welcome To The New Hatbox

05/24/2007

Welcome to the new Hatbox! Maybe I will even periodically post stuff here. Well, one can always hope.